


as long as you love me so

by alexdxnvers



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Christmas/holiday/winter prompts, F/F, Mostly Wayhaught centric, and there'll be ones where the whole gang show up, because the dynamic between these characters is a beautiful thing, but there will be a few where Wynonna or the whole gang are all involved, mostly canon compliant but there will be several AUs thrown in the mix
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-09 05:11:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12880848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexdxnvers/pseuds/alexdxnvers
Summary: "if you'll really hold me tight,all the way home i'll be warm"a series of holiday wayhaught fics, because I miss these characters and it's december so why NOT





	1. Decorations

**Author's Note:**

> ... I'm going to change the summary but it's nine am before class and my brain's stalling and it's stalling hard, sO-

Nicole gets off her last shift for the week at an  _ungodly_  hour in the morning. By the time she leaves, she’s felling somewhat guilty about the amount of time she’d spent staring at the radio half-wishing for someone to call in an incident so she could do something, but even the quiet nights filled with paperwork were still tiring. By the time she makes it home, the sun’s just about coming up. Nicole stops just inside her doorway to run her hands through Calamity Jane’s fur before the cat slinks back off to the bedroom. Nicole follows, kicking off her boots and fighting her way out of her pants, tossing them over her desk chair as she passes. She’s tired, too tired to do much more than pull her shirt over her head before falling into bed.

Nicole’s all too ready to kick off her December by sleeping for the next twelve hours, but she’s barely had the time to roll over and shove Calamity Jane off the bed before her phone goes off. Nicole groans, pulling her pillow over her head and pressing her face into it. The phone keeps ringing. Nicole’s of half a mind to just leave it, especially when the ringing finally stops, but it starts up again a minute later and Nicole huffs, tossing her pillow aside and getting up.

She crosses the room in quick strides, pulling her phone from the pocket of her discarded pants, and is about ready to answer with a curt, “What?” when she catches a glimpse of Waverly’s name flashing across the screen. Nicole can’t fight the small smile that tugs at the corners of her lips, and answers the phone with a soft, “Hey, Wavs.”

“Oh, good,” Waverly says. “I need your help with something.”

“What’s wrong?” Nicole asks, alarm rising immediately.

“Nothing!” Waverly says quickly, as if she can tell that Nicole’s reaching for her abandoned holster, ready to rush to her aid. “I just, I can’t… I need you here.”

“Waverly-”

“I’ll see you in a bit?”

Nicole casts a glance over her shoulder at her warm bed, shoulders drooping slightly, but she can’t resist Waverly, and the slight note of discomfort that she can hear over the phone.

“Yeah. Yeah, okay. I’ll head over right now.”

“Thanks!” Waverly says brightly. “Love you, babe!”

Nicole grins at that. Her bed might be calling to her, but seeing Waverly is enough incentive to power through the next few hours, even though she’ll probably end up crashing on a couch at the homestead. Nicole pulls on a flannel and some jeans, pocketing her phone and then, after a moment, picks up her gun and carries it downstairs with her - you can never be too sure with the Earps, even though everything looks peaceful on Nicole’s drive out, and Nicole can’t see anything that might be out of place as she turns into the homestead.

The front door flies open as Nicole pulls her car to a stop in front of the house. She watches, amused, as Wynonna emerges with a bottle in one hand and a box of donuts in the other.

“I think I’ve run out of ways to tell you that it’s a bit early to be hitting the bar,” Nicole calls as she steps out of her car.

Wynonna squints in Nicole’s direction, making out the cop’s silhouette as she stands against the rising sun, then, unsurprisingly, flips Nicole off.

“I’m not heading to the bar,” Wynonna says. “Dolls needs my help… or my gun, I don’t know.”

Nicole shoots a quick look down, pulling her phone out of her pocket enough to make out her screen - no missed calls or texts from the Black Badge agent. Not a serious enough issue to warrant calling everyone in this early in the morning, then, even though he’s going to have his hands full with Wynonna.

“I don’t know how I feel about you driving intoxicated,” Nicole says, more out of duty than anything else - Wynonna doesn’t quite look like she’s been awake long enough to have maybe more than a sip.

“Shut off your cop senses or whatever for two seconds, I’m  _fine_ ,” Wynonna says, jumping onto one of the beams Doc’s left outside from the work he’s helping them do on the barn and walking quickly across it. “See? Balance in check and everything. Leave me alone, Haught.”

“Fine. Where’s Waverly?”

Wynonna gestures back at the house using the bottle in her hand, and Nicole gives her a quick nod before brushing past into the homestead. Waverly’s nowhere to be seen as Nicole tugs off her boots and hangs up her coat, but Nicole can hear a floorboard or two shifting upstairs.

Nicole heads up, almost expecting Waverly to be in her room. She almost walks right across the hall and into her bedroom before she sees Waverly, sitting at the end of the hall and staring up at the attic door.

“Waves?”

Waverly blinks once, then shakes her head and looks across the hall, her eyes taking a moment to focus on Nicole. There’s an odd look on her face, one that Nicole’s sure she’s seen before, but she doesn’t have enough time to try and place it before it’s gone, Waverly’s face lighting up in a smile.

“Hey, Nicole,” Waverly says, holding out her arms as Nicole approaches. Nicole laughs, wrapping her hands around Waverly’s wrists and pulling gently. In a moment, Waverly’s off the floor and in Nicole’s arms. The smaller girl rises slightly on her toes to press a soft kiss against Nicole’s lips. “Thanks for coming over.”

“Mmm, what was so important that I had to come over first thing in the morning?”

“Shit,” Waverly says, blinking again and immediately looking guilty. “Shit, you had a night shift, didn’t you, I’m so sorry, I wouldn’t have-”

“Hey,” Nicole says firmly, pressing a finger to the underside of Waverly’s chin and tilting her girlfriend’s head up so that she can look her in the eye before Waverly starts to spiral. “It’s fine. I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t want to.”

Waverly still looks a bit sheepish. “I can make you breakfast in a bit.”

“That sounds lovely. So?”

“So,” Waverly repeats, looking up at the attic entrance again. “Um, I’ve got to get the Christmas decorations out.”

“... the Christmas decorations.”

“Yes.”

“It’s December _first_.”

Waverly pouts. “It’s an acceptable time to start getting ready for Christmas, Nicole.”

“I’m sure.”

“They’re in the attic. The decorations. At least, I think they are. They were.”

Nicole properly looks up. “Babe, if you had me drive half an hour from town because you couldn’t get the attic door down, even though Wynonna’s probably tall enough and she was just here, we might need to have a talk.”

“I haven’t been up there since… before,” Waverly says. “When I was really, really little. Helping our mother put the decorations away. And then she left, and we never really did Christmas properly afterwards. And Willa… she found me up there hiding once when daddy left the ladder down and it didn’t end well, and I’m just…”

Waverly trails off, looking lost. Nicole knows the look. She sees it sometimes, when they’re in the barn and Waverly’s eyes flick up to the beams she’d been made to walk across, or the time they’d gone walking around the Earp land and Waverly had shown her the small graveyard of all of Waverly’s pets, and how Waverly had trailed off after a moment, eyes fixed on a little patch of dirt with what looked like a fresh marker for the spot where a  _Pikachu_  had been laid to rest.

“We don’t need to get anything out today if you don’t want to,” Nicole says gently, pressing a kiss to Waverly’s forehead.

Waverly leans into the touch for a moment before leaning back, shooting Nicole a wry smile. “Just didn’t want to do it alone, you know?”

Nicole knows.

The homestead’s attic looks like it hasn’t been walked through in years. Nicole’s almost scared to move and stir up the dust, but Waverly immediately leaves her side and makes a beeline across the tiny space to a small stack of boxes.

“I found some of our stuff downstairs,” Waverly calls over her shoulder. “But this looks like it’s the last of it.”

Waverly traces her hand over the concise letters spelling out Christmas on one of the boxes, then shakes herself out of her reverie and lifts the top box from the stack. “Help me carry these down?”

It takes a bit of maneuvering down the narrow stairs, and Nicole’s more tired than she’d like to admit from her night shift, but they get everything downstairs and Waverly immediately pulls the flaps open on the box nearest to her.

“Ornaments,” she says under her breath. Nicole flops down on the couch, catching her breath and wondering if Waverly will notice if she shuts her eyes for just a few seconds. “We need to get a tree… hey, Nicole, how do you feel about helping me get a tree?”

“Whatever you want, Waverly.”

“I can hear you talking into a pillow, you know.”

Nicole rolls over, watching Waverly open the next box, her girlfriend’s face lighting up. She pulls the end of a string of outdoor lights out, looking up to shoot Nicole an excited look.

“The porch?” she asks, tugging carefully on the cord in her hands.

Nicole thinks about it for a moment, the homestead porch lit up outlined by strings of lights. It’ll look pretty, with all the snow Purgatory’s supposed to get this time of year.

“The porch,” Nicole agrees.

Waverly carefully winds up the strand of lights she’s managed to extract, laying it gently on the top of the box before she gets to her feet. Nicole looks up as Waverly approaches, pushing herself into a sitting position on the couch as Waverly reaches up and runs a hand through Nicole’s hair.

“Breakfast first, though?” Waverly asks.

“God, yes,” Nicole breathes, and Waverly laughs as Nicole tugs her onto the couch to cuddle with her for a moment before they get up, the promise of food and a morning of planning decorations on the horizon. Nicole lets Waverly tug her into the kitchen, and thinks, as she passes the boxes and looks down at the lights and ornaments, that whatever Waverly wants, she’s ready to do... even if that means balancing on a ladder for two hours in the cold so Waverly can have her lights.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Welcome to the first chapter of my Wayhaught/Wynonna Earp holiday fic series! The plan was to post chapters every day or at least every few days - that plan might be a bit out the window for this first week or so because the internal drive in my computer disconnected last night (which is inconvenient as all hell because finals are next week hahaha rip) (hello from Safari in recovery mode), and if they hold my computer when I go to get it repaired, I do have most of the fics for this week already written and I'll just put them all up at once when I get my laptop back.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading this little pointless drabble that I'm kicking the month off with, and if you have any requests or prompts for chapters either for the whole Earp gang or just Wayhaught, feel free to drop them in my ask box on tumblr at zazzzalil or in comments here! Hope you all have a good start to the month!
> 
> *also the rating of this fic might be subject to change, so keep an eye on that, I guess


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the prompt: making christmas cards
> 
> aka the one where Nicole makes Christmas cards because she’s a soft child™ (and also the one where I accidentally kind of touched on sad backstories, whoops)

Nicole hesitates, as she does every year, pen hovering over the front of a bright red envelope. But, just as she’s done every year for a while now, she gives in, meticulously writing out her mother’s name across the envelope and then filling in her childhood address under it. If she doesn’t address it to her father, at least there’s less of a chance that he’ll intercept it and throw it out right of the bat.

At least, Nicole hopes so. She hasn’t exactly brought it up on any of the instances she’d checked in with her family recently. Finding out whether or not her Christmas cards have ever been acknowledged isn’t high on her priority list of things to bring up whenever she does check in with her parents.

Nicole finishes sealing the envelope and sticks a stamp on it, setting it aside so that she’ll stop thinking about it. She starts down her list then, spreading her assortment of holiday cards around her and slowly starting to make them out to people: friends from school, instructors and classmates from the academy, the odd extended family member. She writes one out for Nedley, even though she knows she’s going to just leave it on his desk, and pushes that particular card away from the stack to be mailed out.

She slows as she picks up her card she’d ended up buying for the Earps - Wynonna’s not going to like it, but Nicole had been sold on it the second she saw the little unicorn ornaments hanging on the tree in the illustration. She’s been debating for awhile now, whether or not she should mail them the card or just hand it to her girlfriend in person, but after another moment’s consideration, Nicole slides the card into a green envelope and puts it on top of her pile.

* * *

 

There’s something about the post office that gives Nicole a weird vibe. She’s not sure whether that has to do with anything supernatural or if it’s just small town behavior getting to her, but there’s something not quite… right.

Maybe it’s just the bored high schooler who seems to be perpetually on shift, who can’t decide if he just wants to be completely out of it or spend the whole time Nicole’s in the building watching every move she makes.

It’s a bit early to mail the whole batch of cards, including the ones going to Purgatory addresses, but if there’s one thing Nicole had learned from her dad, sitting at the table every year as a kid watching him go through his address book, is that if you’re going to send a Christmas card, make sure it gets where it needs to go by Christmas. Nicole knows that she needs to send them now so that they’ll make it to some of her further away friends from the academy in time.

But this means that Waverly’s card will get to the homestead way early.

Nicole glances over at the kid at the counter, the last card still in her hand, and finds that he’s staring straight at her, his eyes unblinking.

_Fuck it, I’m not coming back anytime soon._

Besides, Nicole’s spent a fair bit of time with the severely understaffed Purgatory Postal Service behind the scenes - they’re good at getting any paperwork to the sheriff’s department as soon as it comes in, on the rare occasions that they get tied up with investigations in the city or need to request information from outside of their database, but outside of that… they’ve always been very good at waylaying mail sent within the town until someone inevitably notices the stack of mail that’s been piling up and gets to sorting it out.

Odds are that the Earp card will disappear for a week or two and show up as a conveniently present surprise.

What Nicole isn’t expecting is that she’d actually be at the homestead when Wynonna comes banging through the front door a few days later, shuffling through the stack of mail in her hands.

“Calm down, Earp,” Nicole says to Wynonna, as Waverly startles upright from her spot lying in Nicole’s lap. Nicole gently tugs at her girlfriend’s shoulders until Waverly’s lying down again, tangling her fingers in Waverly’s hair and restarting the braid she’d been trying to do.

“Bill,” Wynonna says, flicking one envelope in their direction. It falls short, sliding under the couch, and Nicole sighs, making a mental note to help Waverly retrieve it later. “Another bill. Whoops, this one’s mine, let’s see. Ugh, paperwork. Wynonna and Waverly Earp - oooh, Haught-mail!”

“Hotmail?” Waverly questions from Nicole’s lap. “Wynonna, that’s an… email company.”

“Oh, shit,” Nicole says under her breath as Wynonna steps properly into the room, waving a familiar green envelope in her hand.

“What do you have to say to us that you can’t possibly say to our faces, Haught?” Wynonna teases, groaning when she makes the mistake of getting close enough to couch that Waverly’s able to sit up and snatch the card from her sister’s hand.

“It’s a card, dummy,” Waverly says quietly, pulling out the card and smiling at the unicorns. She flips it open to read the small message inside, then passes it off to Wynonna. Instead of resting her head back down, Waverly pulls herself up enough to sit across Nicole’s lap. She loops her arms around Nicole’s neck and presses a series of kisses to the side of her girlfriend’s face. “It’s cute and I love it, Nicole.”

“Ugh, gross,” Wynonna says, making a face over the top of the card as Waverly tilts Nicole’s head down for a proper kiss. “This is too much PDA for my couch.”

Nicole laughs as Waverly pulls away to pointedly roll her eyes at her sister. Wynonna makes a face in return, but Nicole notices the way Wynonna’s eyes drift back down to the card. It makes Nicole wonder, not for the first time, whether the two Earp girls had ever even had anyone bother to send them a card for the holidays.

She’s distracted from this thought process when Waverly pulls her back into a deep kiss in response to something Wynonna mumbles, and Nicole’s all too happy to oblige, resting her hands on the smaller Earp’s waist and tugging the girl closer to her. Nicole hears Wynonna grumble something under her breath before leaving the room, her boots falling heavily on the floorboards. Eventually Waverly takes pity on Wynonna and pulls Nicole off the couch, leading her upstairs so that they’re out of the older Earp’s way.

When Nicole’s on her way out, she glances over and sees the card, unicorns and all, sitting on the mantle of the fireplace. Wynonna’s outside, leaning against the porch rail and looking out at the Earp land, eyes softening slightly when she glances over at the door opening and sees Nicole, and Nicole takes the risk of potentially getting pushed away and pulls the older Earp into a quick hug.

“Get off, Haughtstuff,” Wynonna says half-heartedly, and Nicole decides not to bring up the way Wynonna’s hand gently squeezes back around her arm before she’s shoved off. “Go run off to your shift already.”

Nicole gives Wynonna a mock salute, hopping neatly off the porch.

“And Nicole?” Wynonna calls. “Thanks. For the card.”

Nicole shoots Wynonna a bright smile that has Wynonna scoffing “tone it down, you’re gonna blind me” under her breath, but she returns the smile before turning back into the house.

When Nicole goes through her mail that’s been sent to her at the station the next week, she finds two cards addressed to her from the Earp girls, and nothing beats the way they both look at her when they pass through the station and see the cards both propped up at the edge of her desk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Night Vale episodes I were listening to when I was writing this installment is the reason why Purgatory now has a creepy-ass post office, so let's just make that real clear lmao
> 
> This was... supposed? to be cuter and fluffier than it turned out being, but I just rewatched 2x10 and I was thinking about Nicole not really being in touch with her parents and to what extent that might actually be, and then I was thinking about Earp backstory and coming up real empty on a list of people who might have bothered to send Wynonna and Waverly cards for holidays over the years, and I made myself emotional and then we ended up with... this fic.
> 
> ... anyways, feel free to hit me up with any prompts or requests for this Christmas series either here or in my tumblr ask (I'm @ zazzzalil)! Hope you enjoyed today's little drabble!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka the one with fireside cuddling and hot chocolate

“Oh,  _gross_.”

Waverly looks down at her coat, raising her arms from her side to assess the damage and wincing as the slime stretches with it. She’s gotten pretty good at salvaging clothing from the messes that demon-hunting inevitably leads to, but this one looks like a lost cause.

Wynonna snickers as they troop through the station and into Black Badge offices. Waverly shoots her sister a glare as the older Earp drops into a chair and kicks her feet up onto the table.

“What?” Wynonna asks, her face the picture of innocence. “Shouldn’t you have learned by now to leave your nice things at home before we kick demon ass?”

“This wasn’t exactly on the plan for the evening,” Waverly says, examining her coat again under the better light. Definitely a lost cause.

“Ah, nope, keep that mess off my floors, please,” Dolls says, walking into the office in time to catch Waverly trying to scrape the muck off herself.

Waverly rolls her eyes, shrugging her coat off and throwing it at Wynonna, who shrieks as it lands on her and almost flails straight out of her chair.

Dolls barely manages to contain his snort.

“Waverly, you’re done for the night,” he says, ignoring the indignant spluttering coming from Wynonna. “Feel free to head home. Earp, I need you to stay for a bit longer.”

“But-” Wynonna starts.

“No buts,” Dolls says, shooting Wynonna a look as Waverly sticks her tongue out at her sister from behind Dolls’ back. “We have things to wrap up here, Earp.”

Wynonna settles back into her seat, rolling her eyes and saying “butts” viciously under her breath as Waverly leaves the room, turning away from the path to the exit and instead heading deeper into the building.

Technically, Nedley’s said that none of them are supposed to enter the station’s locker rooms - but Nedley had only put that rule in place in an early attempt to try and keep Dolls from taking over all his resources. It’s late, and Nedley’s long since gone home, but that doesn’t stop Waverly from looking over her shoulder as she pushes into the room. She walks along the lockers until she finds Nicole’s, guessing the combination on the lock on the third try and stealing one of the fresh towels that her girlfriend keeps neatly folded in the bottom of her locker.

Waverly pauses for a moment, grinning at the small collage of pictures that Nicole’s taped up on the inside of the door - Nicole’s never mentioned it, and Waverly feels her heart swell slightly as she looks at it.

“You soft dork,” Waverly says under her breath, tracing their silhouette in one of the pictures before she gently closes the locker door.

Waverly shoots a glance at Nicole’s empty desk on her way out of the building. It’s more or less cleared off, all of Nicole’s stuff from the day gone, leaving just an odd few papers pushed into a neat stack near the corner of the desk. Waverly frowns slightly at that as she makes her way outside: Nicole’s done for the day, not on patrol somewhere around town, and Waverly doesn’t know if her girlfriend went back to her own place or to the homestead.

Without her coat, Waverly’s left shivering as steps out of the station and runs to her Jeep, spreading Nicole’s spare towel out on the driver’s seat before she gets in. She winces as something squelches as she settles down. It’s late, she realizes for the first time, checking the dashboard clock as she drives down the deserted main street. Her heart sinks slightly: she’d been hoping to get to see Nicole tonight, maybe have a quick dinner, but odds are that her girlfriend’s already curled up in bed, tired after a long shift.

And so Waverly almost trips over herself as she steps just into the homestead and begins to toe her boots off, because there’s a silhouette sitting in the dark, illuminated just by the light from the fireplace, and Waverly feels the tension that had built up from running around Purgatory after demons all night drain away when Nicole turns and beams at Waverly.

“Hey, you,” Nicole says, putting her book down and shifting slightly. More light from the fire spills across the room. A small crease appears on Nicole’s forehead as she takes in Waverly’s disheveled state for the first time. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Waverly says, getting her second boot off and setting it gently by the door. There’s a small trail of slime left on the flooring, the light catching it just enough for Waverly to see it: something she’ll just have to remember to deal with in the morning, then. “I thought that you’d have gone home.”

Nicole gets up, crossing the room. She rests her hands on Waverly’s arms, clear from demon gunk thanks to her now ruined coat, and gives Waverly a quick look up and down, scanning as well as she can in the dim light for any bruises or cuts. Waverly stays silent, letting Nicole assess for herself that she really is fine: they’ve both had too many severe scrapes that they’ve tried to downplay to the other, but the middle of the night, safe in the warmth of the homestead, is not the time for heroics.

Finally, Nicole relaxes slightly, sure that her girlfriend is still intact, and her gaze flicks back up to Waverly’s lips before she starts to lean in.

“Ugh, don’t, I smell gross,” Waverly laughs, trying half-heartedly to push Nicole off, but she still rises slightly on her toes to lean into Nicole’s quick kiss.

“I don’t care,” Nicole whispers, running her thumb along Waverly’s cheek. Waverly gives it another second, and then she sees Nicole’s nose crinkle up slightly. “Okay, never mind. What is that?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” Waverly says under her breath. “I just really want to hop in the shower.”

“Mind if I join you?” Nicole jokes, eyes glowing mischievously in the dark. The taller girl laughs at the look on Waverly’s face, giving the Earp’s arms a gentle squeeze before stepping back. “Go on then, go de-slime yourself.”

The slime turns out to be somewhat water-resistant. Half an hour later, Waverly’s reduced to sitting against the wall of the shower, scrubbing at her skin until it’s pink and all the traces of demon are washed down the drain. When Waverly gets out, she stops in front of the bathroom mirror, the hands that are toweling her hair dry slowing. She leans in, looking closely at her face. The slight worry that’s been hovering in the back of her mind since the demon blew up in all of their faces pushes to the forefront of her thoughts, and Waverly feels the slight panic that always comes when she had to encounter demons and goo now and  _what if, god, what if?_

Waverly widens her eyes in the mirror. The only thing reflected back at her is white and brown, no traces of black other than her pupils. Waverly takes half a step back, assessing. She feels fine, feels in control, remembers every moment between returning to the station with Wynonna and Dolls until now, dripping water onto the bathroom tiles.

Good.

Her bedroom is empty when Waverly emerges from the bathroom. Shivering as she crosses the room, Waverly retrieves an old sweatshirt from her closet, tugging it down over her tank top. She can hear someone moving around in the kitchen: Nicole, since Wynonna is presumably still tied up at the station, and there’s nothing subtle about the way Wynonna moves around the kitchen.

When Waverly gets back downstairs, Nicole’s standing by the fireplace, her arms awkwardly extended as she tries to dislodge the blankets she’d balanced in the crook of her elbow, her hands otherwise occupied by two mugs.

“Babe, you’re going to set something on fire,” Waverly laughs, and Nicole jumps slightly as Waverly emerges from the shadows of the room. Nicole grins sheepishly, stilling and letting Waverly carefully take the blankets from her.

“I made hot chocolate,” Nicole says, holding out one mug when Waverly’s dropped the blankets to the floor in front of the fireplace. “You looked a bit cold coming in. What happened to your coat?”

“It was the unfortunate casualty of the night,” Waverly grumbles under her breath, but she smiles up at Nicole as she takes the mug and presses a kiss to her cheek. “Thank you. Why are you like, the cutest person ever?”

Waverly’s noticed over the months how easily Nicole get flustered around her, the strong, badass cop persona falling away in seconds to be replaced by a soft gay mess, and sure enough, Nicole’s cheeks glow bright red in the light from the fire, the taller woman looking down and fighting to hide a smile.

“I’m pretty sure that’s you, Waves,” she says, sitting down. Nicole sets her mug down on the floor, wrapping one of the blankets around herself, then looks up, extending an arm. “Sit with me?”

“Duh,” Waverly says, letting Nicole wrap her blanket around the both of them. She nestles into Nicole’s side, taking a long sip of hot chocolate. It’s warm and cozy, here on the floor with Nicole by her side and the fire in front of them and a warm drink in her hands. Waverly lets herself drop her guard for the first time in hours, pushing aside the tension of running around Purgatory chasing after shadows and demons and just enjoying being here, at home, with her girlfriend.

“This is nice,” Waverly whispers, resting her head on Nicole’s shoulder and staring into the flames.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Good,” Nicole says quietly, pressing a kiss to the side of Waverly’s head and reaching back out for her book. Waverly watches as Nicole’s fingers skim through the book, finding the page she’d left off on.

“What’re you reading?”

“Nothing interesting. History book, I guess, some old war and police tactics. Nedley gave it to me.”

“Read to me?”

Nicole tilts her head to shoot an amused look down at Waverly. “Police tactics? Really? I can go find a better book if you want me to.”

“It’s fine,” Waverly says. “I just want to hear your voice.”

Nicole softens slightly at that: she’s never one to deny Waverly, and her girl looks exhausted from running around with Black Badge. Nicole adjusts her hold on the book, wrapping her free arm more snugly around Waverly’s waist, clears her throat, and begins to read quietly.

Waverly’s silent for the most part, nuzzling into Nicole’s side and taking the occasional sip from her drink, only stopping Nicole a handful of times for a question. It’s a good half an hour before Nicole feels Waverly fully relax into her side, feeling her girlfriend’s even breaths against her neck. Nicole glances down, just to be sure, and is met with the sight of her girlfriend curled against her side, sleeping.

Slowly, Nicole sets the book down, then gently slips Waverly’s mug out from her loose grip before she drops it. Waverly barely stirs, letting out a soft whimper when Nicole pulls away for a moment to stand up, and then presses herself back against Nicole as the taller woman picks her up.

“Love you,” Waverly murmurs in her sleep, tucking her head against Nicole’s collarbone.

Nicole practically glows at that, readjusting her grip on her girlfriend and pressing a soft kiss and a whispered “I love you back” against her forehead, carrying Waverly away from the fire and up to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me vs waiting til the very end of this fic to incorporate the prompt of "fireplace and cuddling and warm drinks".
> 
> As always, hope you enjoyed, feel free to hit me up with holiday fic prompts/requests this month on here or tumblr (@ zazzzalil), and I hope you all had a great weekend!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka the one where Nicole struggles and Waverly's amused

They go shopping early: Waverly’s idea, because Waverly’s nothing if not a planner. That, and she had the odd feeling that if they plan to go any later in the month, odds are they’ll end up being waylaid by revenants or demons or Nicole having to deal with whatever Purgatory’s drunk hooligans new illegal pastime for the month is going to be. **  
**

Nicole drives them out to the city. Waverly loves this: spending time with Nicole, cellphones off and abandoned in their bags so that Wynonna can’t hijack their hour-long drive, squabbling over the music they’re listening to (Nicole wants to listen to the radio. Waverly wants to listen to the CD of Christmas music she’d just bought... Waverly wins by pouting when Nicole glances over at her only for her argument to die in her throat at the sight of Waverly’s pleading eyes).

Purgatory’s always slow on the holiday decorations, if anyone ever remembers to put any up. Downtown, though, they’re already driving by holiday lights strung up across roads and between streetlights, Christmas trees up in open spaces. Waverly snorts when they drive by a statue and spots Santa hats propped up on its head.

“I bet this all looks stunning at night,” Nicole says, craning her head forward to look at the lights crisscrossing around the intersection while they’re stopped at a red light. Nicole’s hadn’t had as many chances to come down to the city in the Ghost River Triangle as much as Waverly has, and isn’t yet familiar with anything other than the fancy restaurants they occasionally drive up to for their dates.

“Not as stunning as you,” Waverly says, and Nicole laughs. “We should come back after dark at some point before they take this all down.”

“How do you feel about dinner? Next week? Lonnie’s covering all the night shifts.”

“Why, Miss Haught,” Waverly drawls, batting her eyelashes and pulling out a fake accent, “are you asking me out on a date?”

“Maybe I am.”

“Just maybe?”

Nicole stutters, flustered, and twists the wheel a little too hard taking the turn when the light changes. “You know what I meant.”

They wander through a few department stores together, Waverly linking her fingers between Nicole’s and squeezing gently. They find a pair of boots that Doc would love, and Waverly notices the flannels that Nicole’s gaze lingers on and makes a mental note to come by and get them later.

Waverly eventually leaves Nicole to her own devices, shoving her hands deep in her coat pockets as she heads back outside. It’s starting snowing while they’ve been inside, and Waverly brushes through the growing crowds on the sidewalks, glancing at storefront windows and waiting for something to catch her eye. Christmas’s with Champ had always been minimally stressful, mostly because by their second year together, Waverly had realized that he just didn’t care. The most he’d done each year was buy Waverly the biggest book he could find in Purgatory’s little bookstore, and it never really mattered what she did for him: he would be happy so long as Waverly let him tug her into his bed by the end of the night.

But this year Waverly has Nicole, who still seems too good to be true, and Wynonna’s properly home for the first time in year. It feels like she actually has a family to celebrate the holidays with again,  _people_  worth celebrating with. Waverly just wants everything to be perfect.

By the time she gets back to Nicole, a few small gifts for her girlfriend hidden away at the bottom of her backpack, she thinks that maybe this is a good start.

* * *

 

Waverly’s planned to head over to Nicole’s place a week or so after their shopping trip to wrap the presents for their friends (Waverly’s shoved her gifts for Nicole deep under her bed, well-hidden by the long sheets draping over the sides: she’ll do those on her own later). Nicole’s off-shift for once while Waverly’s at the station, and as soon as Dolls lets her go, she’s off to Nicole’s, struggling a bit with the bag of presents she’d already accumulated for their friends as she heads up the drive to the front door.

“Sorry,  _sorry_ ,” Nicole pants when she finally opens the door, a good few minutes after Waverly’s first knock. Waverly raises an eyebrow at her girlfriend, who’s usually calm exterior seems kind of frayed at the edges.

“Are you up to something?”

“Nope,” Nicole says, taking the bag off Waverly and setting it down gently on the floor. “Just excited to see my girlfriend after a long, _long_  day.”

Waverly grins at that, her smile spreading at the muffled sound of pleasant surprise Nicole makes when Waverly throws her arms around Nicole’s neck and pulls her girlfriend into a kiss. Waverly feels Nicole melt against her instantly, her hands nudging under Waverly’s coat and coming to rest on the small of Waverly’s back. When Waverly finally pulls away, Nicole’s blinking hard, looking a bit dazed.

“... I need to get tape, hang on,” Nicole says finally, reluctantly pulling her arms out from under Waverly’s coat. Waverly follows Nicole into her bedroom, and there’s a moment where Nicole pauses on the threshold of her doorway, looking over at her wide open closet door before not so subtly taking a few long strides across the room and slamming it shut.

“What are you doing?” Waverly asks, amused.

“Nothing,” Nicole says quickly.

“You’re hiding my presents in there, aren’t you?”

“I’m not hiding anything,” Nicole mumbles, blushing.

“You’re a horrible liar, you know,” Waverly says teasingly, brushing her lips gently against Nicole’s cheek to show that she doesn’t mean it. “Come on, where’s your wrapping paper?”

Nicole pauses for a moment, her eyes flicking back to the closet.

“I’ll go wait for you in the kitchen,” Waverly says, biting back a laugh.

Nicole shoots Waverly a sheepish smile when she reappears, dropping the rolls of wrapping paper in her arms onto the kitchen table.

“Music?” she asks Waverly.

“Music,” Waverly agrees, and Nicole leaves Waverly to get started while she rifles through her CDs. She eventually settles on one of Waverly’s favorite Christmas albums, one that Waverly had stolen for a while to listen to in her Jeep. Waverly hides her smile when she hears the first song start playing, tilting her head down and focusing on folding.

They work in silence for a while, Waverly glancing up every so often and finding Nicole’s entire focus on the paper and gifts in front of her. The fourth or so time, Waverly sees Nicole’s biting down on her bottom lip as she frowns at the tape stuck to her fingers.

Waverly wishes that she had brought her camera.

It takes Waverly a good twenty minutes before she comes to the realization that Nicole is not good at wrapping things… at all. She stops working on her own small stack of presents, propping her head up on her hand and watching Nicole folding and unfolding and refolding the corner on her current conquest. Waverly’s sure it isn’t fun for Nicole, but it’s nice to have little reminders like this: that Nicole’s not the huge perfect human that Waverly sometimes builds her up to be in her head, that she sometimes thinks she can’t match up to, with the kindness and her unfailing dedication to her job and generally being the most beautiful girl Waverly’s ever seen, but then there’s this side of Nicole, the side who adorably scrunches up her nose in frustration when she can’t quite get the paper under her hands to cooperate with her.

“Babe,” Waverly says after a while.

“What?” Nicole replies, not looking up.

“Do you need some help?”

Nicole glances up, pink tinting her cheeks. “Maybe?”

“Do you want me to help?”

Nicole looks over at her handiwork. “I don’t know. I mean, I don’t care about how I wrap things, but… I’m kind of worried that Doc and Dolls and Wynonna are going to think it looks sloppy or something.”

“They’re not going to care, Nicole, I promise.”

“You think so?”

“Yes, I think so. It adds character.”

Nicole snorts a little at that, pressing the piece of tape on her thumb to the wrapping of the gift in front of her with a little more force than necessary before pushing it aside.

“Besides, you are just about the cutest human right now.”

“You’re going to be the death of me, Waverly Earp,” Nicole says under her breath, leaning over the table and giving Waverly a quick kiss. “Come on, I want to at least get most of these done before we head out and meet the gang for dinner.”

The look of despair on Nicole’s face when, five minutes later, she rummages around in her bag, comes up with the good bottle of whiskey she’d gotten for Wynonna, and realizes that she’s going to have to wrap it is, as far as Waverly’s concerned, one of the most precious things she’ll ever see in her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *slight edit/update: finals and final projects are a pain and have unfortunately taken priority over finishing the new chapters for the past two or three days, but after I sit for my final today and finish my 5 page paper on a play I don't understand EXPECT ALL THE WAYHAUGHT TO RETURN


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the one where the gang goes hunting for a christmas tree

“Who’s free this weekend to help me pick out a Christmas tree?”

“Haught is,” Wynonna says, at the same time Nicole goes, “I’m down.” Nicole turns from the paperwork she’s filling out to shoot Wynonna an unamused look.

“Wynonna, this tree is going to be in our living room,” Waverly points out. “Don’t you want to have an opinion?”

“A tree’s a tree, Waverly, it’s not like you’re going to come back with a rainbow and glitter-covered monstrosity. Right, Dolls? A tree’s a tree, isn’t it?”

Dolls stops just inside the room, looking between the two Earp girls and Nicole, trying to decide whether or not he wants to get dragged into whatever conversation he’s just walked in on.

“... yes.”

“What are we talkin’ about?”

“Trees,” Dolls tells Doc seriously, before he crosses across the room. Dolls shoots them all another look before he disappears into his office, rather pointedly closing the door behind him.

“We’re planning to get a Christmas tree,” Waverly explains.

“Well, it’s been a mighty long time since I’ve celebrated the holiday. Mind if I come along?”

Waverly beams, which sets off two very different chain reactions in the room: Nicole, smiling in response to her girlfriend’s happiness, and Wynonna, who somehow manages to sink even further down into her chair with a groan.

“How many of us do you need? You’re just going down to the market and picking out a tree, they’ll even save you the work and put it on top of your car for you!”

“Actually,” Waverly says, “I was thinking of driving out to the Christmas tree farm on the way to the city.”

What happens next happens so quickly that none of them really catch it happening, and Nicole’s left staring blankly for a hot second at the empty chair Wynonna had just been sitting in that’s now knocked over sideways on the ground. Wynonna’s standing now, looking at Waverly with her wide “excitement” eyes.

“Seriously?” Wynonna yells, just as Dolls’ door slams open and the man in question appears in the doorway, giving Wynonna an “are you serious right now” look.

“What is going on here, Earp?” Dolls asks, eying the chair on the floor.

“I don’t get it,” Nicole says flatly, looking from Dolls to Waverly to where Wynonna is now beginning the kind of excited dance she usually saves for someone bringing in good snacks.

“Wynonna hitting something with an axe until it falls over is right up her alley of things considered ‘fun’,” Waverly says, over Wynonna’s increasingly loud excitement.

“Why didn’t you lead with that? Dude, I’m so in. I’ll bring the donuts!”

* * *

 

Nicole doesn’t know why she’s surprised when she pulls up to the homestead on Saturday morning and sees everyone waiting around in the yard - none of them are ever able to turn Waverly down when she’s excited about something, and she’s always saying that they need to spend more time together when they aren’t being chased after by something trying to kill them.

“Nicole!” Jeremy calls, waving enthusiastically from where he’s perched on the back of Doc’s car. His elbow accidentally catches the back of Dolls’ head, the two other men leaning up against the side of the vehicle. Dolls shoots him a half-hearted glare. Jeremy misses it completely. “Guys! Nicole’s here!”

The front door of the homestead opens, Waverly pushing against it with her hip as she cradles several thermoses against her chest. Wynonna, on the other hand, emerges from the barn, holding a large axe in her hand and twirling it casually. Nicole immediately has to fight the urge to take a step back as she approaches: she knows Wynonna, trusts her with her life, but the Earp heir striding towards them with an axe loosely gripped in her hand doesn’t exactly fill one with sunshine and happiness.

“You’re late, Haught,” Wynonna says.

“ _Nicole’s_  perfectly on time,” Waverly huffs, joining their little huddle around Doc’s car and letting the others grab the thermoses from her. “I made hot chocolate - Wynonna, you’re the one that got up at the crack of dawn.”

“What can I say, I was excited?”

“This isn’t one of your vegan mixes, is it?” Doc asks, quickly adding “not that I mind, just a matter of curiosity, Waverly” before taking a large gulp to prove his point.

“You are truly something else,” Dolls deadpans when Doc winces, opening and closing his mouth a few times in an attempt to cool off his scalded tongue. He pushes himself off the side of the pink car, running his hand along the edge of the roof. “Hey, any chance I can convince you to let me drive this this morning?”

Jeremy perks up at that. Doc fishes around in his coat pocket for his keys, and, looking Dolls directly in the eye, drops the keys in Jeremy’s direction. Jeremy fumbles for a second, fingers finally snagging on the keys, and lets out a loud whoop, sliding off the trunk and running around to the side of the vehicle.

“He’s going to crash your car,” Dolls says, rolling his eyes as he slides into the backseat.

“Jeremy, are you going to crash my car?”

“No, sir!” Jeremy exclaims, practically diving into the driver’s seat. Dolls lets out a loud yelp as Wynonna drops down onto the backseat next to him, the axe coming dangerously close to pressing against his side. Nicole lets out a short laugh, looping her arm around Waverly’s waist and walking with her back to her truck.

“When do I get my good morning kiss?” Waverly asks, once they’ve settled and Nicole’s had the chance to set the heater running in the small cab.

“Do you want a good morning kiss?”

“Yes, please.”

“Mmm,” Nicole hums, leaning over to press a sound kiss to Waverly’s lips. She intends to pull away after a few seconds, but Waverly’s hands tangle in the Nicole’s hair, pulling the taller woman into a deeper kiss. Nicole’s all too ready to comply, her hands going back to Waverly’s waist, until the loud blare of a horn going off breaks the silence.

Nicole and Waverly jump apart, as though electrocuted. Nicole immediately whips her head around, tracking Doc’s pink monstrosity as it peels past them onto the road. Jeremy’s head is half-out of the driver’s window, yelling something about “sorry” and “Wynonna” until he’s driven too far away for them to hear him through the rolled up windows.

They pull away from the homestead, following an even distance behind Doc’s car. Waverly tugs open the glove box, flicking through the CDs Nicole’s left there. Nicole knows there’s nothing good, that all her decent music is sitting by the stereo in her living room, and after a few minutes, Waverly seems to reach the same conclusion, reaching out to fiddle with the radio instead until they find a good station that they can still pick up the signal for as they drive away from Purgatory. As soon as she’s done, Waverly reaches out for the hand that Nicole is resting on her leg, gently tugging her girlfriend’s arm towards and beginning to play with her fingers.

“Pretty sure you’re creating unsafe driving conditions there, Waves,” Nicole says, even though she’s definitely not about to tell Wavery to let go of her hand.

“Do you want me to stop?”

“Not particularly,” Nicole says immediately.

“I won’t be distracting, I promise,” Waverly whispers, lacing her fingers with Nicole’s.

They make it out to the tree farm without incident, although Nicole’s mildly concerned with the occasional swerves that Doc’s car had made in front of them. Her suspicions that it was just the usual squabbling is confirmed when she pulls into the parking lot in time to see Wynonna tumble from the backseat of the car, almost falling on the blade of her axe as she quickly scoops up a handful of snow from the ground, flinging it at the back of Dolls’ head as he emerges from the vehicle.

“If we weren’t the only ones on that road, I would be writing all of you up right now,” Nicole says to them as Waverly tugs her towards the tree, ignoring Doc’s exasperated sigh as he brushes snow off of the back seats and onto the ground.

“Chetri was driving!” Wynonna says immediately.

“None of us believe that Jeremy was the one causing trouble, Wynonna,” Waverly calls over her shoulder. “Just bring your axe and try not to kill anyone, please.”

It’s one of the colder mornings they’ve had this December, and the snow is almost up to their ankles as they trudge off the main path and head into the rows of trees. Nicole watches Waverly out of the corner of her eye, watching the smaller girl cross her arms and take a little hops to get her blood flowing every few step. When they stop to look at the first tree, Nicole unzips her coat, throwing an arm around Waverly’s shoulder and drawing her girlfriend against her side, just under the flap of her coat. Waverly shoots her a grateful look, wrapping one arm around Nicole’s waist. Nicole shudders a bit at the cold hand against her side, but she can feel already feel Waverly’s shivers beginning to stop, and keeps Waverly pressed against her side as Wynonna declares this tree too tall to fit into their living room and they move on.

It takes them a good forty minutes of “ugh, we can’t fit this one in the homestead  _either_ ” and “this one is completely flat on one side, I don’t want it in my living room, Wynonna” and “this one is already shedding all over the place and it’s not even dead yet” before they finally find a small, manageable tree that all of them agree on. Wynonna takes the first swing, a bit too much glee on her face as the blade connects with the trunk, and almost knocks Jeremy over when she pulls it back for another hit.

Nicole uses her boots to clear a small rectangle of snow away until she can see the frozen ground beneath, and, pulling the bottom of her coat underneath her butt, sits, letting Waverly settle in her lap. Jeremy sits next to them, fiddling with his phone, and he and Waverly start going on about some of the research they’ve been conducting. Nicole’s more than content to sit here with her girlfriend in her lap, cheek pressed to Waverly’s shoulder, listening to her girlfriend get excited about research while she watches Wynonna, Dolls and Doc take swings at the tree.

It really is nice, Nicole thinks, getting to spend time with the whole gang when they aren’t trying to deal with one supernatural terror after the other. This is probably why Waverly’s always trying to get them to do stuff. It’s been a long time since Nicole’s really had a group of people she’s cared about this much in her life, not since the friends she’d made at the academy, and before that, not since her family had started shutting her out. And with all the people she’s lost, and people like Champ or Stephanie weighing her down, it’s probably been awhile since Waverly’s had this many people in her life too.

The thought makes Nicole sink slightly more forward against Waverly’s body, tightening her arms around her girlfriend ever so slightly. Waverly relaxes against her, tilting her head and pressing a quick kiss to Nicole’s cheek before returning to her conversation with Jeremy.

They get up and each get a few swings in themselves before Wynonna takes the tree down with one last hack at it. Wynonna whoops loudly, doing a victory dance with the axe raised high in the air, and they begin to make their way back to the front of the tree farm, the boys taking turns tugging it between them and Waverly letting out a squeal of delight when Nicole hoists her onto her back and starts running in small circles around their little caravan, Wynonna yelling that “you’d better not drop her, Nicole, or I’m coming for you!”.

Wynonna and Waverly pay for the tree while Nicole helps the boys and one of the farm’s workers get it settled in the back of her truck. It’s a slower drive back, one filled Waverly singing along to the radio between making faces out of the back window at Wynonna, behind them and sitting in the passenger seat of Doc’s car this time.

It didn’t take them long at all, to get the tree and bring it back and haul it into the homestead. Wynonna goes up to the attic and finds a stand, and it’s still early in the afternoon by the time they finish putting it up.

“Decorations?” Waverly asks.

“Tomorrow, baby girl,” Wynonna promises.

The corners of Waverly’s mouth turn down for a moment in disappointment, but Jeremy’s reappearance distracts her, him running back into the room with an armful of their boardgames that he wants to teach Doc how to play. As they settle down around the table, Waverly convincing Dolls to stay and play with them, Nicole feels her heart glowing as they fall into their easy squabbling, and Nicole’s never been more grateful that she is in this moment for the family she’s found here in this small town, and for the small woman tucked into her side that helped bring her to them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Definitely should not have been finishing this chapter because I have about five pages of stuff to finish writing for finals (haha rip), but I haven't updated most of this week so I figured I'd get this one done? But this is probably the only update for the next few days, at least until my finals are through with, then I'll finish the four or five half-finished drabbles I've got and do a bit of a spam-update.
> 
> Also! I'll probably be posting the short first chapter of a holiday longfic (well... it's not that long, not as long as any of the AUs I started before I put them aside to do holiday fics this month, but long enough for me to put it up as it's own work) today or tomorrow, since the starts done, so it'll just be a little sneak preview of the rest of the story which will be finished before Christmas.
> 
> Anyways - best of luck to anyone else wrapping up their finals this week, even though a lot of people I know had them last week. Still, feel free to drop me any prompts on tumblr or @ me on twitter for prompts/requests/etc :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka the one with the mistletoe

Shorty’s is crowded - of course it is, or Doc wouldn’t have asked Waverly to help pick up shifts in the first place. Waverly’s more than willing to return to the bar for a few nights: she’s spent too many years there to not occasionally miss the predictability of it all, at which of the neighbors will show up when, who will be the first to start getting flat-out drunk, the rowdier crowd that Waverly will probably end up kicking out of the bar with the threat of her shotgun by the end of the night. It’s comfortable, something she knows, and she jumps at the chance for a few hours at something normal in the midst of the uncertainty that is hunting for revenants and demons at all hours of the day.

And then there’s the other thing, the unspoken thing, the thing that Waverly knows she and Doc are both thinking, but neither of them will say. There’s a lot of things about  _that_ day that they don’t talk about, but the unexpected loss of Rosita still hangs over them, much later. Waverly’s still torn about five hundred ways when it comes to Doc’s former bartender, but it’s clear that Shorty’s is struggling without her, and Waverly can’t help but feel slightly responsible.

So here she is, on a Friday afternoon, getting back into the rhythm of clearing aside glasses and pouring drinks and wiping down the counter. The bar is more crowded than it usually is, and Waverly scans the faces in the room. She recognizes a good handful of people who don’t live here anymore, probably back to visit families. No wonder Doc’s been struggling: the holiday crowd is beginning to swamp in.

A bunch of jocks from Waverly’s year at school seem to appear at once, throwing compliments and leaning over the counter and remarking how “it’s a real shame that you broke up with Champ, Waverly, but I’m sure you’ll find someone to replace him, eh?”. Waverly plasters on a fake smile as she fills their glasses, dodging their questions, and when they finally leave to head back to their table, they make way for the much-welcome sight of her girlfriend coming in through the doors. Nicole’s eyes fall on Waverly immediately, and Nicole beams as she makes her way across the room, sliding onto one of the stools.

“Hey, Waves,” she says. “What’s a girl got to do around here to get her hands on a cappuccino to go?”

“You know, that’s not as endearing as it once was,” Waverly says with a laugh, “considering you and I both know now that you don’t even like cappuccinos.”

“What can I say?” Nicole replies without dropping a beat. “Pretty girl like you? Couldn’t help getting nervous.”

Waverly flushes at that, scrubbing at a non-existent smudge on the bar top while she gathers herself.

“Charmer.”

“You love it.”

“Yeah,” Waverly admits. She pushes the glasses in front of her aside, clearing a path. Waverly has every intent of kissing her girlfriend senseless, the crowd surrounding them be damned, but she pauses as she starts to lean over the counter.

“Can I…?” Waverly starts hesitantly, realizing that Nicole’s holding herself a good few inches out of Waverly’s reach.

Nicole grimaces, shooting Waverly an apologetic smile.

“Uniform,” she says, shooting a glance around the bar. “I’ve pushed Nedley enough recently… and I don’t want word getting back around to him that I’m flaunting his direct orders.”

“Well, that sucks,” Waverly says, pouting and dragging her washcloth across the counter with a little more force than necessary.

“I’m sorry-”

“No, it’s not you,” Waverly says quickly, shooting Nicole a smile. “I just kind of wanted a kiss from my gorgeous girlfriend… this is homophobia at its prime, isn’t that the phrase you’re always throwing around?”

Nicole snorts loudly, almost choking on her own spit.

“To be fair,” she says, struggling to catch her breath, “Nedley spent a good half hour yelling at Lonnie yesterday for making out with his wife outside the store in uniform, so… prime affection-phobia?”

“No! Really?”

Nicole pauses, thinking. “Actually, I’m not sure that this is a good example, because word is they were getting real borderline close to hitting public indecency.”

Waverly feigns a gag before looking amused. “I’d love to have seen Lonnie’s face when he was caught.”

“You should have seen  _Nedley’s_  face when he was going off on him.”

Waverly starts laughing at that, and Nicole looks fairly pleased to have elicited the reaction from her.

“On a serious note,” Nicole says, reaching over to push a strand of Waverly’s hair back behind her ear and letting her hand linger for just a moment on her girlfriend’s cheek before pulling back, “I do kind of want a drink to take back to the station with me.”

“What’s the weather like?”

“Cold, Waverly, what do you think?”

Waverly stops as she pulls out a disposable cup from underneath the counter, pointing it accusingly at Nicole. “Don’t try and snark me, Haught.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Well, I definitely  _wouldn’t_ recommend getting a cappuccino here,” Waverly says, grimacing. “Especially not since Doc’s taken over… don’t tell him I said that. Hot chocolate?”

Nicole shoots a quick scan around the bar as Waverly works on filling her cup: she’s supposed to be poking a head into Shorty’s anytime she’s patrolling the area, and even though she knows in her heart that she’d only left the station on a short break just to see Waverly for a few minutes, Nedley doesn’t need to know that (even though he probably has a pretty accurate suspicion of where she’d disappeared to). Still, at least she’ll be able to go back to the station and report that all is quiet at Shorty’s, for once.

“There,” Waverly says, pushing the cap down on the top of the cup and holding it out. Nicole reaches for it, and her fingers close around the cup, brushing over Waverly’s, who doesn’t let go quite yet as she holds Nicole’s gaze. “A kiss for s drink?”

“Later,” Nicole promises. “Tonight? Dinner, my place?”

“God, yes,” Waverly says, finally letting go of the cup. Nicole stands, shooting her girlfriend a soft smile before turning and heading for the doors. She knows Waverly’s watching her go, and turns to raise the warm drink in her hands in thanks before disappearing back onto the cold streets of Purgatory.

* * *

 

Dinner doesn’t happen.

Nicole isn’t surprised at this point: they’ve had more dates pushed aside or rescheduled than dates they’ve actually managed to successfully go on the first time around. She’s glad, as she drops her keys on the table and toes off her boots, that at least she hadn’t had the time to actually make the dinner. Missing out on a date with Waverly is fine. Sitting alone at her dining table set for two… slightly less so.

Nicole decides that there isn’t anything she can do about it, and moping isn’t going to solve anything, so she decides to take an early night. The next morning, she swings by the Black Badge office hoping to catch Waverly, and she’s met with an apologetic Doc. He takes her to the break room, saying something under his breath about demon hallucinogens and nightmares and “sorry,  _Waverly’s_  fine, but Wynonna…”

It’s not the first time this happened in the months they’d been dating, Nicole and Waverly’s schedules ending up completely at odds with one another. Nicole’s back on a week where she’s taking up what feels like a million too many shifts, and Waverly seems to be in town only when Nicole’s busy running around Purgatory after miscreants. It’s the kind of week that weighs Nicole down, and as much as she would love to, driving the half hour out to the homestead between shifts and sleeping and filling in the paperwork for the triple homicide she’s working on with police from the city is not something she can do, not when Nicole’s barely been able to make it to her couch before she’s falling asleep these past few days.

“Wynonna’s still having trouble sleeping,” Waverly says quietly over the phone, on day four of the two of them barely having seen more than quick glances of each other. “I think she’s dreaming of daddy and Willa, and Alice. And she’s apologized for leaving me behind about a hundred time in the past three days.”

“No, I understand,” Nicole says quickly. She can hear the slight undertone of pleading in Waverly’s voice, and feels mild panic rising up in her. She needs Waverly to understand that she knows why they haven’t been able to really spend time with one another, needs Waverly to know that she’s okay with Wynonna being her girlfriend’s priority right now. “Your sister needs you there, and I agree, Wynonna should have someone nearby if she’s still having nightmares.”

Nicole truly means the words with every fiber of her body, but that doesn’t mean she still doesn’t miss seeing her girlfriend.

She sees Doc and Dolls trickle into Black Badge on Friday afternoon, Jeremy in tow with a box of something that Nicole can hear rattling around even from across the room. The Earp girls are both absent. Nicole shoots them a quick wave when they walk in the door before she bends her head back down over her paperwork: the officer she’s cooperating with from the city has some of the worst handwriting Nicole’s seen in her _life_ , and trying to fill out paperwork with information from the mess of case notes she’s dealing with is beginning to give Nicole a headache. She’s used to the boys passing right by her desk - they’ve been studying the demon toxins this week, Doc swinging by whenever he’s not busy trying to manage the holiday crowd at Shorty’s to help - and it takes Nicole a good hot second to notice the shadow cast on her desk. Nicole looks up, blinking: Doc’s standing in front of her desk, in the process of removing his hat from his head.

“Hey,” Nicole says, glad for any reason to take a break from this case file. “Do you need something? Does Jeremy?”

“No, not at all,” Doc says, “though I’ll ensure that Dolls will holler for you should the need arise. No, I just thought it would be in your best interest to know that Waverly’s working the bar tonight.”

Nicole blinks again, mind still half-thinking about evidence. It takes her another moment to do the math of when she gets off-shift, and Doc chuckles to himself as Nicole’s face lights up.

“Oh!” she says, trying hard to get the grin off her face and failing miserably. “Oh, okay! Thanks! I’ll be sure to swing by, then, thank you-”

“Haught, is this the station or some kind of social event?” Nedley calls, appearing in the doorway of his office. He tips his head towards Doc. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t distract my officers while they’re trying to crack a case.”

“You have my word that it won’t happen again,” Doc says, pressing his hat back onto his head and shooting Nicole a quick wink before heading into the BBD office.

Nicole dives into her case files with a new resolve, and a few hours later, has her coat on and is practically out of the station by the time the second hand on the clock ticks over to mark the end of her shift, completely missing the small smile that crosses Nedley’s face as he watches her go before shaking his head and returning to his office.

* * *

 

As much as stepping behind the bar makes a part of Waverly’s subconscious extremely happy with the familiarity of it all, she’s realizing that she doesn’t quite miss this mad pre-weekend and holiday rush. The problem with Shorty’s is that everyone in town knows Waverly: that in itself can sometimes be a good thing, but tonight, it means that people from all corners of the room are calling her name, looking for refills or to place another food order or drunkenly flirting with her while pulling up stories of that one time Waverly smiled in their direction in high school and how they hadn’t been able to stop thinking of her since. Waverly has no idea where the college kid Doc had hired from the city has disappeared to - she hasn’t seen him for the past twenty minutes, and between him and the customers, Waverly’s just about out of her usually endless patience.

“Hey, Waves!”

Waverly raises her shoulders defensively, almost on instinct, when she hears her name being called, but in less than a second her brain recognizes the voice as Nicole, and Waverly relaxes as she turns to see her girlfriend sitting in one of the seats at the counter. Her girlfriend’s wearing a familiar Blue Devils sweatshirt, one that Waverly recognizes as coming from the back of her own closet - it had never been one of her favorite tops, but on Nicole? Waverly can definitely see the appeal, and is all too tempted to lean over the counter to let Nicole know just how much she appreciates the look on her, but a loud yell from the other end of the room brings an end to that short-lived plan, and brings Waverly’s attention back to the drinks she’d just finished making.

“I’m so sorry, give me a minute,” Waverly sighs, picking up the drinks and scooting across the room to drop them off. Nicole’s drumming a beat out on the counter when Waverly gets back, shooting Waverly a small smile as she draws nearer. “Thanks for coming by, how’ve you been?”

“Okay,” Nicole says, shrugging. “Really missing this one special girl, though.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, she’s about yay tall? Likes talking about history? The most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen?” Nicole says teasingly. “I’ve missed you. How about you, though? You look kind of tired.”

“I’ve been staying up to keep an eye on Wynonna,” Waverly explains. She didn’t need to, not really, but she had felt a lot better the past few nights knowing that she could help shake Wynonna out of her nightmares before they started getting too bad. “And this crowd tonight is just… it’s a lot.”

“No one’s been too rough or anything, right?” Nicole asks, voice hardening slightly as she glances around at the crowd. Waverly pauses in filling up glasses, reaching across the bar and resting her hand on top of Nicole’s for a moment. Nicole looks back at her, relaxing out of what Waverly calls her “cop stance” almost instantly.

“Everyone’s been fine,” Waverly says. “Besides, Jeremy’s been here watching out for me,  _right, Jeremy?_ ”

Nicole glances down the length of the bar. Jeremy’s head is craned over a folder of lab notes, one hand playing with the handle on his mug of hot chocolate. It takes him a moment to blink and realize he’s being addressed, and he looks up, frowning for a moment as he thinks back to the tail end of the conversation going on.

“But... Waverly’s perfectly fine of protecting herself? She definitely doesn’t need me to be here, right? I mean-”

Waverly sighs loudly, picking up the glasses in front of her and leaving to give them to the patrons at the other end of the room.

“What?” Jeremy asks.

“Nothing,” Nicole says, smiling to herself and reaching out to clap Jeremy’s shoulder.. “You did good, Jeremy.”

Waverly comes back to grab a pitcher and does a lap around the room, refilling drinks and trying to prevent anyone from coming up to the bar top for long enough that she can spend some time with Nicole. That plan goes somewhat awry too when Doc’s college boy, finally reappearing from wherever he’d been hiding, has nine different food orders lined up on the counter. Waverly sighs internally, shooting Nicole an apologetic look as she takes down another order. Nicole mouths “no, you’re fine” before Waverly glances back down, and when she looks up again, Nicole’s got her hands in the boxes sitting on the corner of the counter.

“Christmas stuff?” Nicole asks.

“They belonged to Shorty,” Waverly explains as she passes by Nicole towards the door to the small kitchen, orders in hand. “Doc found them in the basement, we’ve been meaning to put some of it up.”

There’s a thoughtful look on Nicole’s face as she roots deeper into the box, and Waverly pauses in the doorway to the kitchen to watch her girlfriend across the room for a few moments, smiling and shaking her head before she pushes into the kitchen. When she gets back, balancing the orders and sliding them down in front of the guests at the counter with a quick smile, Nicole’s nowhere to be seen. Waverly frowns for a moment at the boxes of Christmas stuff on the counter, the flaps still open, and then over at Jeremy, who’s scribbling over his notes.

“Hey, Jeremy, did you see where Nicole went?”

Jeremy looks up, looking oddly flustered. “Um, Nicole? Yeah, she uh, she said something about going to the storeroom- no! The restroom! She went to go use the restroom.”

“Oh, okay,” Waverly says, still frowning a bit at Jeremy’s twitchiness. She reaches for her rag to wipe a smudge of something off the counter, then realizes that Jeremy is still looking at her expectantly. “What?”

“I don’t think Nicole’s feeling so good.”

“... she looked okay when I left,” Waverly says slowly.

“You should probably definitely go check on her,” Jeremy says loudly.

Something doesn’t seem right, but whatever it is, Waverly can’t quite pinpoint it. Instead, she turns her back on Jeremy, making a beeline straight for the open doorway to the restrooms and small storage room. She’s almost there when Nicole steps into the doorway from where she must have been standing behind the wall, reaching out to grab Waverly’s arms and bringing her to a stop in the doorway. Waverly looks up at Nicole’s face, scanning it for any signs of distress, but Nicole looks as healthy as she did when she walked into the building, eyes clear and giving Waverly a mischievous smile.

“What-”

“I might have asked Jeremy to lie to you, sorry about that,” Nicole says, eyes flicking up quickly before returning down to meet Waverly’s gaze. Waverly glances up, and lets out an amused huff when she sees the mistletoe dangling in the doorway above them. Nicole had taken it from Shorty’s box and stuck it up while Waverly was in the kitchen, no doubt.

“You’re such a little troublemaker, Nicole.”

“Well, I do believe I owe you a kiss,” Nicole teases, stepping closer to Waverly.

“A bit overdue, d’you think?” Waverly teases back, looping her arms around Nicole’s waist and biting back a giggle as Nicole shrugs, grinning.

“Is this okay?” Nicole whispers, gaze flicking between Waverly’s eyes as she leans in, fingers curling against the back of Waverly’s neck.

“ _So_  okay,” Waverly murmurs. Nicole hesitates for another moment, suddenly mindful that the din of Shorty’s had quieted down and that they probably have an audience, and presses a kiss to Waverly’s cheek. She barely has time to pull back before Waverly tuts, one finger under Nicole’s chin and the other hand tangling in her hair, and pulls her in for a proper kiss, one that Nicole all too readily melts into.

Jeremy gets a picture of them, pressed together under the doorway. He vehemently denies being the one to put it up in a frame in Nicole’s hallway when everyone’s over for board games, but Nicole  _knows_. She appreciates the gesture enough to let him win the next round of cards: a picture is worth a thousand words, and that captured moment with Waverly is worth more than enough for Nicole to put up with Wynonna’s endless teasing about losing to Jeremy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) I miss Rosita, and I have a lot of feelings about Rosita, and I sincerely hope we touch on Rosita at least a little bit next season pleASE
> 
> 2) Okay I just wanted to say about Nedley's thing about being in uniforms - the secondary school I went to was lowkey ballistic about the things we did while we were in uniform and there was a whole thing in our school rules about how we should and shouldn't behave when we were out in public still in our school uniform so like... Nedley pressing the thing about behavior in uniforms on everyone is not wholly unrealistic lmao
> 
> 3) Love how I took a one word prompt of 'mistletoe' and spun it into a 3 thousand word thing, lovely, that lol
> 
> I'm obviously a bit behind on chapters, but I'm definitely still taking prompts or requests if anyone has any :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aka the one where Waverly's a determined little snowman maker

Nicole wakes to an empty bed.

She rolls over, groaning as light shines directly into her eyes and burying her face in the pillow under her head. Nicole takes in a deep breath, relaxing as she recognizes the familiar scent of Waverly’s shampoo. It takes her a minute to gather up the energy to try and push herself up, and then another to orientate herself in the cocoon of blankets that  _feel_  like home but she knows isn’t really, at least not yet.

Nicole might like being an early riser, normally, but winter is hard: the normal warmth of the sun as it rises is countered by the chill, and it’s so much  _quieter_  in Purgatory in the mornings than it was when she lived in the city. The knowledge that she doesn’t have a shift until late in the afternoon makes it all the more difficult to find the motivation to get up. Nicole buries her head in a pillow for a few minutes before dragging herself out of bed. She steals a hoodie from Waverly’s closet before she heads downstairs in search of her girlfriend.

Wynonna’s sitting at the kitchen table, her eyes closed and her head half-resting in her hand. Every few seconds, she takes a sip from the mug in her hands. If Nicole weren’t used to Wynonna by now, the stillness and the fact that she’s just facing the opposite wall with her eyes squeezed shut would be mildly disturbing, but Nicole knows that this is just Wynonna trying to cope with being up early.

“Morning,” Nicole says, taking the seat opposite Wynonna.

“I’m so glad you didn’t start that sentence with the word ‘good’.”

“... _good_  morning, Earp.”

Wynonna opens her eyes just so that she can narrow them at Nicole, who gives her back her best innocent “who, me?” expression.

“I was  _going_  to say that I got donuts, and that you _could_  have one, but now I’m thinking about taking back my offer,” Wynonna says.

“Mmm, too late,” Nicole shoots back, reaching across the table and snagging one from the box before Wynonna can slam it shut on her fingers.

Nicole leans back in her chair, contentedly taking a bite out of the donut as Wynonna slouches again and takes a loud slurp of coffee. She listens as she chews, trying to find the telltale sounds of Waverly moving around the house, since she’s clearly up, but there’s nothing: no music coming from one of the rooms, no pages rustling from one of the many books Waverly leaves around the homestead.

“She’s outside,” Wynonna says, catching Nicole’s questioning look and guessing the question before Nicole even finishes opening her mouth. “I’ve been watching her for the past half an hour.”

“You’ve been sitting here with your eyes closed,” Nicole points out as she cranes to look through the kitchen window, biting back a hiss as Wynonna kicks her under the table, muttering “smart-ass” under her breath.

For a moment, Nicole sees nothing, and then Waverly marches past the window. Her arms are drawn up to her chest, cradling a pile of fresh snow against herself. Nicole leans back in her chair to watch Waverly deposit the it next to a large round lump of compacted snow. Waverly barely hesitates before dropping to sit on the ground, packing her new pile of snow together into another ball.

“Did I just watch Waverly ‘please give me your jacket I’m freezing’ Earp sit down… on the frozen ground… voluntarily?”

“You should see the three other snowmen she’s made in the front of the yard,” Wynonna remarks.

Nicole leans the chair onto it’s back legs, hooking a foot against the table leg to keep her balance. She finishes off the donut while she watches Waverly continue packing snow together, until she’s getting to her feet again and hoisting this ball on top of the other one.

“How long has she been out there?”

“Lord knows,” Wynonna says, reaching for another donut. “She was already out when I got up.”

Nicole watches Waverly start another trek across the yard to gather more fresh snow, a familiar look of stubborn determination across the smaller woman’s face as she tucks her hands under her arms for warmth. Wynonna snickers as Nicole gets up suddenly, forgetting that the balance on her chair is off and almost tumbling to the ground in her hurry. Nicole takes a moment to calm her racing heart from the almost fall, flips Wynonna off, and hurries upstairs. Her cell phone is sitting on Waverly’s bedside table, right where she’d left it next to Waverly’s before she’d fallen into bed after her girlfriend.

“Seriously?” Wynonna asks around her mouthful of pastry as Nicole arrives back in the kitchen, phone in hand, and heads straight for the window.

“Shut up, this is adorable,” Nicole says under her breath, smiling at the shots she takes of Waverly giving all her attention to the snow she’s shifting across the lawn, huffing with her face scrunched up in frustration as some of it slides under her shirt. After another few pictures, Nicole shoves the window open, leaning out of it as best as she can.

“Hey, Waves!” she shouts. Waverly turns, snow temporarily forgotten, to beam across the lawn at her girlfriend and wave excitedly, yelling out a quick “good morning!” and smiling for Nicole’s camera before returning to her work.

“See, look at her,” Nicole says triumphantly to Wynonna as she slams the kitchen window shut again, sliding her phone across the table so that Wynonna can look at the pictures. “I don’t think I’ve seen Waverly this focused on anything besides history books.”

“She always did like making snowmen when we were kids,” Wynonna admits quietly, tracing patterns on the table. “She did them with our mother, before she left. And then for a little bit after.”

“And you?”

Wynonna pauses, and that’s enough answer for Nicole to put it together herself.

“She had her pet hamsters and her snowmen,” Wynonna says finally, “because she didn’t have us, then.”

“Wynonna, that’s not-”

“No, don’t, I  _know_ ,” Wynonna says, closing her eyes and slumping back against her chair. “I should have tried to be there for her  _more_ , instead of following fucking Willa around.”

“You were a kid, Wynonna,” Nicole reminds her, even though her nose crinkles at the mention of Willa, one hand raising unconsciously to rest on her ribcage. “And you’re here for her now. She knows that.”

“Yeah, I know,” Wynonna says. She glances out the window again, watching Waverly fuss with the carrots she seemed to have shoved in her pockets before heading out, but Nicole keeps her eyes on Wynonna. Wynonna’s got that look on her face that looks like something’s on her mind, and Nicole waits until the other woman finally comes out with, “Do you think Alice would like being out there with her?”

Nicole looks outside, and she knows that she and Wynonna are both thinking about a little girl who could, in a few years, in some other universe, be running through the snow after her aunt, cheeks flushed pink from the cold but with eyes lit up with excitement, both of them thinking about Waverly and Alice and the Earp family finally being whole again.

“I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough,” Nicole says carefully, because it’s been a few months and Wynonna’s reactions to this topic of conversation tend to vary immensely, though they’ve been more on the emotional side since Waverly had started decorating the homestead for the holidays.

Wynonna doesn’t reply other than to slide Nicole’s phone back across the table to her. The two women sit in silence for a few minutes, Wynonna giving an unholy amount of attention to whatever she sees in the bottom of her coffee cup and looking up at Waverly every few minutes, while Nicole sends a quick text to the station to make sure nothing’s come up that requires her to head in before her shift.

“Okay, that does it,” Wynonna finally says, standing up. Nicole starts, looking up at Wynonna as she yanks her jacket from over the back of the chair and begins to pull it on, then she looks through the window to see exactly what had made the Earp get up. Despite Waverly’s initial endurance, she’s now hit that point where they can see her visibly shivering, even though she’s still up to her elbows in cold, white fluff. Nicole lets out an affectionate huff as she gets up again and detours through the living room to fetch her own coat before following Wynonna to the door.

“Baby girl, you’re gonna freeze to death!” Wynonna calls the second she gets the door open.

“I don’t care!” Waverly hollers back. “I’m going to build a whole village’s worth of snow people.”

Wynonna lets out a sigh, resting her head against the doorframe. “At least come in and put on another jacket, Waverly!  _Waverly!_ Haught, tell my sister to put on a jacket.”

“Waverly, come on, it’ll take a minute!” Nicole calls, forehead wrinkling in concern as she watches her girlfriend.

Waverly doesn’t stop for more than a second, and it’s just to turn in their direction and stick her tongue out at them before setting off at a run around the side of the house.

Wynonna and Nicole exchange mildly exasperated looks, but neither of them have to exchange a single word before they’re both pulling their boots on and heading outside, blinking against the dazzle of the sunlight against the snow. Waverly turns when she hears the snow crunching under their feet, face lighting up as she throws herself at her two girls, almost taking Nicole down and missing Wynonna as the older Earp ducks out from under Waverly’s arm and dumps a handful of snow down Waverly’s back, taking shelter behind the latest snowman when Waverly turns to retaliate.

If Waverly Earp wants a village, she’s damn well going to get one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and on this week's episode of 'local fic writer is apparently incapable of writing any kind of drabble without subtext/obvious angsty references'... whoops
> 
> Okay but to be fair I did rewatch I think every episode that mentions Waverly's plethora of childhood pets so I was thinking about it writing this, and I also recently spent a good hour sitting on a porch watching my baby cousin running around making teeny tiny snowmen so like... listen... I think about Alice Earp a lot and it's not necessarily a good thing but here we are.
> 
> ALSO I'm endlessly amused by how quick some of the adults in my life just descend into children the first few times it snows around the holidays (so long as no one actually has to drive through it at that point in time lmao) and just go out with all the kids and wreak complete havoc, and in my head Waverly Earp is 100% the kind of person to get super excited about a good enough snowfall to go out and make good snowmen on at least one morning so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
